Funeral Ceremony and Social Functions in Xinjiang

Abstract

For human beings, death is not only a physiological phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon. How to face the inevitable death and comfort the dead and the living has always been a great thing. In human society, since the emergence of related beliefs and concepts such as “dead soul” and “afterlife”, rituals for offering sacrifices to the dead have gradually taken shape, which are either complicated or simple funeral rituals. In different stages of human social development and social organizations in different regions, funeral rites are ubiquitous and play an indispensable role in a specific social and cultural system, with irreplaceable functions. Malinowski has pointed out: Of all the sources of religion, death is the most important, the last joint of life and the supreme turning point.